Crystal Cabin Fever expands for seventh annual ice festival

Friday

Feb 8, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Since around 12,000 people showed up for icy fun last year, Crystal Cabin Fever is expanding the popular February event. And not only will the seventh annual ice display be bigger, but the theme will also be larger than life.

MELANIE VANDERVEER

Since around 12,000 people showed up for icy fun last year, Crystal Cabin Fever is expanding the popular February event. And not only will the seventh annual ice display be bigger, but the theme will also be larger than life.

"The theme for this year is dinosaurs. We're going to do about 20 to 30 different dinosaurs. We're also doing some 'Ice Age' and '(The) Flintstones' characters," said Mark Crouthamel, owner of Sculpted Ice Works in Lakeville. "We use about 100 tons of ice; 800 blocks of ice. The biggest sculpture will be near 18 feet tall."

The event was started because many people feel a bit of cabin fever by the time February rolls around. It was also created to help business in a slower month. The original event boasted a life-size cabin with thousands of people showing up for the fun. Each year, the festival offers a different theme along with some familiar attractions.

"We created the event for self-preservation in the winter. It's turned into a community event," Crouthamel said. "We've built and grown so much since the first one. And the community is jumping on board and offering packages. Rooms and restaurants are filling up, so everyone benefits from the event."

With so many people visiting the festival last year, Crouthamel wanted to open up more space on the property this year. The museum will be open for tours.

"A big thing is the museum tour is open on our property this year. It will help spread people out on the property. We had to blow it out a little bigger this year," he said. "The museum tour is where people can see us harvest ice. We harvest about 30 to 40 blocks a day on average. We're making ice pretty quick on these cold days."

The ice festival also includes live carving demonstrations, ice carving competitions on the weekends and some fun for the kids. Even the adults will love the ice slide.

"We have a great dual-run slide, and this year we've added another slide for the smaller kids," he said. "There is a bonfire outside, and snacks. There's also so much to see."

One attraction that has the adults talking is the ice bar for wine tasting. Antler Ridge Winery of Rome stocks the ice bar with plenty of its local wine varieties. The winery offers free tastings and sells wine by the bottle.

"We'll be there Fridays through Tuesdays every week. We'll be offering a wide variety of grape wines and fruit wines, and we'll be introducing three new wines — pomegranate wild berry, blackberry merlot and sangria. We'll be bringing all the regular favorites as well. We have about 30 wines now, but we'll have about 20 of them at Crystal Cabin Fever," said Steve Unis, owner of Antler Ridge Winery. "The ice bar is awesome. We love the ice bar. It's a very unique bar. We're so proud to work with Mark and his group, and we're excited to come back and do it again."

Kristen Johnson, office manager for Sculpted Ice Works, said if you haven't been to the event before, you really need to come this year.

"This year, having the dinosaurs is really awesome for everyone. You can touch and take pictures with them," she said. "What's really fun is watching the live ice carving. During the week, we have one person doing ice carvings, and on the weekends we have multiple carvers in competition."

The entire event is carved by a staff of only eight people. Crouthamel said it takes a solid two weeks to build and carve it all. Believe it or not, it takes longer for the sculptures to disappear than to be created.

"After the event, we walk away. It's amazing how long it does last," Crouthamel said. "It's amazing; sometimes in April, there's still ice."